More on Moran and Israeli and Jewish lobby and morons

[S.R. Prozak]

3/13/03 9:47:52 PM
Baltimore Jewish Times

Reston, Virginia -- http://www.jewishweek.com/scripts/edition.pl?
now=3/13/2003&SubSectionID=31&ID=2884

Moran Braces For Jewish Opposition

Matthew E. Berger Special to the Jewish Times

MARCH 13, 2003 Washington

Rep. James Moran (D-Va.) says he understands why Jewish leaders are
furious
with him over a history of comments against Israel and the Jewish
community,
and predicts the Jewish community will mount a fierce opposition to
replace
him in the next congressional primary.

Moran, 57, told JTA on Monday that he felt "hurt" and would not heed the
call for his resignation by six local rabbis. They made the call after the
congressman told constituents last week that the Jewish community is
behind
the Bush administration's push for war with Iraq.

"If I were a rabbi and seeing those remarks, I would have reacted the same
way, maybe worse, given my emotional makeup," the seven-term lawmaker said
in
a candid telephone interview.

Moran, whose daughter is in the process of converting to Judaism, has been
at odds with the local Jewish community for years.

He has often tried to climb out of holes, which he admits he has mostly
dug
for himself by speaking ill of Israel and its supporters.

"I'm insufficiently cautious in the way I express myself," said Moran, the
former mayor of Alexandria, Va. "I tend to be too blunt and too
graceless."

Morris Amitay, treasurer of the pro-Israel Washington PAC, indicated that
Moran's prediction about his future is correct.

Amitay said he already has someone in mind to challenge Moran in the
Democratic primary, and expects that person to receive strong support from
the
Jewish community.

"We now have a vulnerable incumbent," said Amitay, a former executive
director of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

Rabbi Jack Moline, the spiritual leader at the Conservative Agudas Achim
Congregation of Northern Virginia, says the Jewish community's
long-standing
tiff with Moran stems from his support for Palestinians.

"Moran's empathy for people who are suffering has expressed itself as
antagonism for the state of Israel and the people of Israel," said Moline,
who
led the call for Moran's resignation this week.

Among the lawmaker's actions in recent years that have prompted Jewish
fury:

• On the eve of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's visit to Washington
in June 2001, Moran told a national convention of the American Muslim
Council
that the Israeli leader was "probably seeking a warrant from President
Bush to
kill at will with weapons we have paid for";

• In 2001, the lawmaker was also forced to return $2,000 in political
campaign contributions from Abdulrahman Alamoudi, the former executive
director of the American Muslim Council, because of remarks Alamoudi made
in
support of Palestinian terrorist groups;

• In 1994, Moran told the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee that
the killing of 29 Muslims by an Israeli doctor, Baruch Goldstein, was "not
committed by a lone individual but collective acts of complicity in a
pervasive injustice."

In the latest controversy, Moran told a town hall meeting with
constituents
March 3, "If it were not for the strong support of the Jewish community
for
this war with Iraq, we would not be doing this," according to the
Virginia-
area Connection newspapers.

His latest comments were rebuked by Jewish leaders, local officials and
his
peers in Congress. Even the White House called the remarks "shocking."

"Congressman Moran suggested that the reason that the president is
thinking
about using force in Iraq is because of the influence of the Jewish
community," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Tuesday.

"Those remarks are shocking. They are wrong, and they should not have been
said."

Democratic congressional leaders — including Senate Minority Leader Tom
Daschle (D-S.D.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) —
chastised
Moran, as did the National Jewish Democratic Council.

Moran has spent this week apologizing, and was scheduled to meet with
local
Jewish leaders Thursday.

"I slipped up and I said something that has been properly taken as
offensive," Moran said in his interview with JTA. "I wish I had caught
myself
and reflected on it before I said it."

Moran says the comments were not taken out of context, but he is trying to
make clear that his response came from a questioner who identified herself
as
Jewish and asked why more Jews were not expressing their concerns about
the
impending war with Iraq.

"I was trying to explain my sense that mainstream elements of society and
communities of faith were in support of war and if they weren't, we
wouldn't
be going to war," Moran said. "If she had identified herself as a
Catholic, I
would have said the same thing."

Moran paused, sighed, and said, "I wish she would have identified herself
as a Catholic."

Moran has consistently told Jewish audiences that his support for Muslim
and Arab groups was "pandering" and that he has at times lacked knowledge
on
Middle East issues.

Moran, whose northern Virginia congressional district includes roughly the
same number of Jews and Arab Americans, has supported pro-Israel
resolutions
in Congress in the past — which his adversaries say was an attempt at
pandering to them.

But Moran's long-term voting record on Israel has been of concern to the
Jewish community.

He was one of 17 lawmakers who voted against a congressional resolution
commemorating the reunification of Jerusalem in 1997 and one of 37 who
opposed
legislation in 1995 that required moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel to
Jerusalem from Tel Aviv.

Moran says he is a strong supporter of the Labor Party in Israel and has
forged good relations with Yossi Beilin, the dovish former justice
minister
and one of the architects of the Oslo peace process.

"I feel quite strongly that the Likud Party approach to the Palestinians
is
relatively self-destructive," Moran said. "If you expand the settlements,
the
laws of demographics will end Israel."

Despite his controversial oratory and actions, Moran has until now been
able to maintain the support of a number of Jewish lawmakers.

Last October, in a pre-election letter to Moran's constituents, 11 Jewish
senators and U.S. representatives called Moran a friend of Israel.

Some of the signatories of that letter said this week that they viewed
Moran's recent comments as anti-Semitic, but that it was too early to say
whether they would support his re-election.

But at least two of those signatories, New York Democrats Jerrold Nadler
and Gary Ackerman, both strong Israel supporters, indicated they would
stick
by their colleague.

Saying that "people with hateful beliefs do not apologize," Ackerman
said, "As a friend, I will counsel him to think his words through
carefully as
these issues are very heavily nuanced."

For his part, Moran says he believes his re-election battle will get
tougher next year because of his comments.

"I would have a safe district if it were not for my Herculean efforts
against it," he said, anticipating that Jewish constituents would put up,
and "fund heavily" a primary opponent against him.

But Moran says he will not resign and will face re-election next year.

"I think I have to take it on," he said. "I owe it to my kids not to back
down."

That includes his daughter who is converting to Judaism before an August
wedding.

"This puts a damper on what should be a wholly positive experience for
her," he said.

This story reprinted courtesy of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

[ So let me get this straight: there is no connection between the Jewish community here and Israel, thus there is no need for them to mount a collective effort to support Israel, * but * since Moran is anti-Israel, it's of concern to the local Jewish voting bloc? That's paradox at its finest. Admit it: religious and cultural groups vote together unless assimilated. ]

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